Free Resources – All the English Sounds

Get to know your English Pronunciation with this introduction to English Sounds.

English has over 40 different sounds. There are two types of sounds; vowel sounds and consonant sounds. All of them are listed below. Click to listen to each sound by itself and in words.

Record your speech and compare it with the native speaker. Please note these tools may not work on mobile devices.

As a non-native speaker it is likely that making some of these sounds correctly when you speak will be difficult for you. A Star Pronunciation course guides you through correcting the sounds that you find difficult. Correcting these areas of English pronunciation will make your speech more like a native English speaker and make it easy for people to understand your English. The tool below will help you improve your English sounds, listening skills and awareness of syllable stress.

Listen carefully to the sounds you make.

English Vowel Sounds

Short Vowel

Listen to the Native Speaker

Record Your Own Speech

/ɪ/

hit | pick | miss | tip

/e/

let | neck | mess | wet

/æ/

sat | back | hat | cap

/ɒ/

hot | sock | boss | top

/ʌ/

cut | luck | fuss | cup

/ʊ/

put | look | cook | good

/ə/

This vowel is in many weak syllables:apart | pilot | carrot | minute

Now, let’s try the long vowels. Pay careful attention to how long the vowel is.

English Long Vowels

Listen to the Native Speaker

Record Your Own Speech

/i:/

heat | peak | piece | leap

/a:/

start | dark | laugh | ask

/u:/

suit | threw | juice | soon

/ɔ:/

caught | pork | horse | form

/ɜ:/

hurt | work | nurse | sir

English Double Vowels
(Diphthong Vowels)

Listen to the Native Speaker

Record Your Own Speech

/aɪ/

light | like | rice | ripe

/eɪ/

late | lake | race | train

/ɔɪ/

boy | choice | voice | noise

/aʊ/

about | found | house | down

/oʊ/

note | coke | hose | phone

/ɪə/

hear | near | fear | beer

/eə/

hair | share | pear | chair

/ʊə/

pure | tour | lure | cure

English Consonant Sounds

Listen carefully to the sounds you make.

Consonant Sounds

Listen to the Native Speaker

Record Your Own Speech

/p/

/b/

pay | happy | cup

bay | trouble | rub

/t/

/d/

tip | letter | sat

dip | ladder | sad

/k/

/g/

came | talking | back

game | bigger | bag

/f/

/v/

fine | offer | off

vine | saving | of

/θ/

/ð/

thin | method | both

then | other | with

/s/

/z/

sue | missing | face

zoo | crazy | phase

/ʃ/

/ʒ/

show | pushing | rush

measure | asia | vision

/ʧ/

/ʤ/

choke | watching | catch

joke | charging | large |

/l/

love | follow | well

/m/

mail | humour | some

/n/

nail | funny | nine

/ŋ/

singer | sing

/h/

heal | perhaps

/r/

real | correct

/j/

you | beyond

/w/

we | showing

English Syllable Stress

The way we use the pitch of the voice to stress certain syllables in English is very important for speaking clearly. This makes the ‘music’ of English.

This is often a particularly difficult area for non-native speakers. With your Star Pronunciation Course you will learn how to hear and make the correct rhythm and stress in English words and sentences.